1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for printing images while performing scanning with a printer head in a main scanning direction with respect to a printing medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a known conventional example of a printing apparatus of this type, there exists an ink jet printer, in which a number of nozzles are arranged on the printer head. In this ink jet printer, when ejecting ink by driving aelectrostrictive elements provided behind the nozzles in the printer head, a current of approximately 50 mA flows momentarily in a drive circuit for driving one electrostrictive element.
To cause ink to be ejected simultaneously from a number of nozzles by using such drive circuits, it has been necessary to momentarily supply an enormous consumption current. Thus, there has conventionally been proposed an arrangement in which, to reduce the momentarily required consumption current by supplying current on a time-division basis to each drive circuit in order that a number of electrostrictive elements may be driven without using a power source of a large capacity.
However, when causing ink to be ejected from the nozzles by driving the electrostrictive elements on a time division basis while continuously performing scanning with the printer head, a positional deviation occurs in printing in the ink ejected from the nozzles due to a difference in drive timing between the electrostrictive elements, resulting in a deterioration in image quality. This is particularly conspicuous in the case of the printing of an image having a longitudinal line component.